Congress says it will support AAP govt’s motion of trust

The Congress on Sunday clarified once again that it was going to support the Aam Aadmi Party government till the time it delivers on the promises made it its election manifesto.|

Senior Congress leaders confirmed that their eight MLAs will vote in favour of the AAP government when it seeks vote of trust on the floor of the house.

Congress has offered outside support of its eight MLAs to AAP, which has 28 members in the 70-member house. Despite being single largest party with 31 seats, BJP refused to form government citing inadequate numbers.

The Kejriwal government has called first assembly session from June 1. While Day One will witness the MLAs taking oath, Kejriwal has proposed to seek vote of trust on its government on January 2. Day 3 of the session has been proposed for the election of speaker and deputy speaker of the house.

Delhi Congress chief and Gandhi Nagar MLA Arvinder Singh said the party will soon finalise their strategy for the house. “I have couple of important meetings tomorrow (Monday). We will finalise our plan of action. But one thing is very clear that we have extended outside support to AAP so that they could fulfil the mandate of people. We are going to stick to our stand,” Singh said.

A number of Congress leaders had expressed their reservations on supporting the AAP government. Some leaders had also said that the party should rethink the decision. Difference of opinion was reported between the eight MLAs who have got elected to assembly this time. Singh, however, insisted that the party was united and there was no rethinking on the decision of supporting AAP.

The BJP also said that it will finalise its strategy in a day or two. “They (AAP) were very clear that they will neither seek our support to form government nor will they offer us any support. Our party is not responsible for the survival of the AAP government,” said leader of the opposition Harsh Vardhan.

Vardhan added that his party will sit and work out a strategy only after they get a formal communication on the dates on which AAP government will have to seek support on the floor of the house.

While BJP is likely to field its own candidate for the election of speaker and deputy speaker in the house, Vardhan said all these issues will be discussed in the party’s meeting in a day or two.